October check: How is your MS today?

Days slip away as hours of sunlight diminish here in the north. I know our members Down Under are seeing warmer days and shrinking nights, but here, closer to the 50th parallel, the leaves, temperatures and rain have begun their long and steady fall.

School years are in full swing and so are our social calendars. The rush for year-end deadlines is but days away. The sports pages contain more news of football than baseball and the ‘Boys of Summer’ have become battered and hardened men of October.

That’s my artistic way of saying: It’s autumn again; where has the year gone?

We take the first Wednesday of each month as an opportunity for you to check in. It’s already the tenth time we’ve done this in 2007, and I think this subject has been well-received.

I know I’ve been able to mine this space for new postings, and you’ve been very active in your comments, which leads me to believe that this idea has been a success. Even some of the other bloggers here at HealthTalk are using our idea. Like the old saying goes, “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”

Mine? Well, at a recent neuro appointment, we’re starting to see a slow slide again. It has been two years since my last Novantrone treatment. I, along with my docs, decided to keep one dose ‘in my hip pocket’ as it were. And it may be time to use it.

The good news is that these past two years have been amazing. I’ve gone from needing a cane every day (and a walker on some) to one of my docs looking at me slack-jawed after not seeing me for just over a year. I seem to be following right along the track of post-treatment studies for Novantrone patients; the drug seems to show efficacy for about 24 months after a full course. Now it’s time to schedule that last bid of the ‘blue juice’.

Another positive; I’ve lost enough weight that I now have 1.5 doses left (Novantrone is administered by a patient’s weight).

Other than a bit more fatigue (and still that hip issue) I’m pretty good these days. How about you?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevis Gleason

Trevis L. Gleason is a food journalist and published author, an award-winning chef and culinary instructor who has taught at institutions such as Cornell University, New England Culinary Institute and...read more